The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1887-08-18
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MARIETTA, GA,
thursday MORNING, AUGUST II. 1887.
YOUNG MEMS CRIMES.

lnere seems TO be an epidemic Of
crime at present among young men
The telegraph reports and local pa
Ipers tells every day of young men
yielding to the temptation of crime
and being held for embezzlement, for
gerry, false pretense, breach of trust.
detalcation, etc. 1t would seem that
in this fast age Of telegraph, railroads
and detectives, almost any young
man would have too much sense to
commit such crimes, even if he did
not have the moral principle to re-
strain him; for he is Just as certain
OF destruction, exposure and disgrace
as that he commits the crime. He
is fool who thinks he can conceal
it. Waving consideration of the
moral turpitude of such offenses it is
little wonderful that young men
will not, as mere matter of bust
ness policy, steer clear of them and
be honest. The English language
has never served to construct an ut
terance more truthful than that
"honesty is the best policy" The
young man who dares to use single
dollar of his employers money with
out the latter's consent is taking the
first fatal step in the direction of dis
grace. When he begins to waste his
earnings in foolish sports and neg
lects to save the nickels, and dimes
and single dollars, he is acquiring
habits which will rob him of indie
pendent manhood, unfit him for bus
mess and reduce him to such embar-
RAISING straits as to make him an
easy victim to the seductions of
criminal temptations which promise
present relief Many young man
OF honest purposes and real noble in
stincts has gradually gone, by sure
degrees that to him where impercep-
tlble, from position commanding CON
fdence and great opportunity, to a
degradation and ruin, because he
had not the moral heroism to live
frugally and within his income. Over
ando~er the old story is repeated al
most every day, OF the young man in
position OF trust, who began, with
perfectly good intentions, to use a
little of his employers money here
and little there, with a view to
making it good" before detection
could follow, and at last, in des-
perate effort to make enough by
gambling with cards or stocks to meet
the deficiency and escape exposure,
rlsked large sums of money not his
own and lost all. There is one sig
niticant fact concerning nine-tenths
OF the young men who 90 astray,
which We would be glad to impress
upon every father in the land: They
| do not read. The instances are rare,
indeed, where young men with a taste
for useful books and papers are gull
ty OF the foolishness of crime. 1t
has been a cherished maxim through
all ages that nothing is better safe
guard. to. character than a taste for
useful reading. The young man who
turns his back upon books, maya
zines, and papers, as certainly turns
his face to ignorance, folly and crime.
10 be sure there are great criminals
who are also general readers, but
they are exceptions to the rule.
Young men are rather to be pitied
than punished who are foolish enough
poor things.--tO fancy it possible to
keep up with other people in the
race OF lite without reading, or inn
proving their minds by any sort Of
intellectual employment, and to per-
petrate any of the offenses above
mentioned without entailing the GER
tain disgrace which stands as an in
escapable penalty for erring of that
character. In this country there is
no excuse for crime but ignorance
for every young man within the do
main of the Republic can make a
good living and get on happily if he
will only be honest, industrious, fru.
gal, and exercise a reasonable amount
of common sense in the management
Of his affairs. The greed for easy
fortunes is the chief incentive tc
crime in these days of fast fortune
making But how foolish in young
man to risk his chqracter-a that i,
sacredest and dearest to himself and
his family, and which once destroyed
can never be wholly restored-upon
the "hazard of die" so to speak,
for the trapsitory wealth Of the
world We repeat that, as a-mere
matter Of policy, no man can afford
to do violence to the right. The
young man who starts out in the
world believing that he can live "by
his Wits" by trickery, concealment,
and dishonorable means generally,
it were better for him and his family
that he have milestone hanged
absut his neck and cas-. into the sea
We glad that so many Marietta
young men have preserved their in
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